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Terrance Brennan's passion for simple yet flavorful cuisine has fueled the success of his two acclaimed New York City restaurants, Picholine and Artisanal. In this long-awaited cookbook, Brennan shares his approach to what he calls "artisanal cooking," reflecting a devotion to detail and reverence for the freshest ingredients, simple presentations, and an inspired blend of tradition and creativity, all of which leads to memorable meals at home.

Artisanal Cooking features 150 tantalizing recipes ranging from hors d'oeuvres and entrees - such as Miniature Grilled Cheddar, Apple, and Bacon Sandwiches; Soft-Shell Crabs with Mustard Sauce; and Beef Short Ribs with Olives and Orange-Cumin Carrots - to desserts, including Brennan's signature cheesecake and Chocolate Fondue. A cheese connoisseur, Brennan describes more than 30 of his favorites and suggests wines to pair with them. The cookbook is also a visual feast, with 75 lush color photographs by renowned food photographer Christopher Hirsheimer. Throughout, there are valuable tips that cooks can use to adapt Brennan's recipes or improve their own cooking, including:

TERMS AND TECHNIQUES: information about terms like "sweetbreads" and technique tips, such as a simple way to roll dough over a tart

THE REASON: explanations for why good cooks do things such as truss a chicken or let meats rest between cooking and serving

The book's extensive pantry section, including recipes and how-to photos, further illustrates Brennan's point that delicious meals start with quality flavors and elemental techniques. Taking pleasure in the ingredients and the process makes cooking - and sharing the results - a joy.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

`Artisanal Cooking' by noted New York restaurateur and cheese shop entrepreneur, Terrance Brennan, assisted with noted cookbook assistant writer, Andrew Friedman brings, with its title, a promise of great things. The first impressions which comes to mind are Tom Colicchio's great book, `How to Think Like a Chef', the Jean-George Vongerichten / Mark Bittman's collaboration, `Simple to Spectacular', John Ash's `cooking one on one', and most especially Paul Bertolli's `Cooking by Hand', which has a title meaning something very similar to Brennan's `Artisanal' moniker.

Brennan's main problem is that his message is very ambiguous. Since he owns the `Artisanal Premium Cheese Center', artisanal cheeses and other artisanal food products are very important to his cuisine, but praising hand crafted ingredients plus fresh and seasonal ingredients does nothing to improve the quality of the cookbook. And, since the title of the book says it is about artisanal COOKING, not artisanal INGREDIENTS, all the talk and information on high quality American and European cheeses teaches us nothing about artisanal cooking, even though it does give us a pretty nice tutorial on making nice cheese platters, although I think the paragraph or two we have seen from former caterer, Ina Garten's books gives us about as much substance in arranging cheeses on a good cheese platter.

In contrast, Bertolli gives us genuine hand crafting tutorials on central culinary subjects such as how to make sugos, pasta, and sausages.Read more ›

A warning to read the recipes carefully and think them over. I made the Pavlovas with Berry Compote this evening, and while the Compote is delicious, the Pavlovas are inedible! I carefully followed the recipe to the letter, despite my better judgement - the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of fine sea salt to 6 tablespoons of superfine sugar - because I figured the author knew what he was talking about, and I've never made Pavlovas before. They look absolutely beautiful, but taste disgusting. Chewy salt. We couldn't even swallow, but spit the bite out into the sink. Very, very disappointing, for all the painstaking work and anticipation. I hope it is simply a typo and not indicative of the author's tastes; we saw him on television recently talking about how wonderful and exciting salt is. I'm a fan of salt too, but when it's the only thing you can taste, something's wrong. And yes, it was the right kind of salt, and I'm sure I didn't measure wrong.

I am rating the book 3 stars because many of the recipes *sound* terrific; he has some great flavor combinations. But I won't be afraid to adjust ingredients during future efforts based on my own experience.

Bought the book several years ago. Appreciated the section about a well-stocked kitchen ... good checklist for the notive cook who is trying to improve. On the downside, every single recipe I've tried dissapointed. It's not that it was bad; it's just that it wasn't good enough to have gone through the effort ... or ever make again. If I were a suspicious person, I'd be tempted to think he's held out a key ingredient, technique, or step. Also, when are cookbook editors going to remember that they are adapting restaurant recipes for the HOME and that a large percentage of people have ELECTRIC ranges and cooktops? I suppose you could argue that someone using electric appliances ought to know the difference and adjust accordingly. I'm not saying each recipe should indicate specific, different directions. But a page early on in the book to generally explain the differences would be helpful. After all, someone who can cook well probably doesn't need this (or any) cookbook for anything more than ideas. The more advice and tips you add, the more successes people will have. And they will attribute that success to the book. Not only will they have learned to be a better cook, they'll tell others of their experience with the book. And word of mouth is the best (and cheapest) advertising out there.

I was anxious to try the Artisanal gougere recipe, and I was not disappointed! The cheese puffs were light and cheesey and beautiful to look at! I compared his recipe to Le Cordon Blue recipe, and his adds a pinch of baking powder and about 2-3 times the amount of cheese. Plus he give approximate mixing times, which was a blessing for me since I had never made cream puff dough before. The Cordon Blue version had no mixing times and with such a small amount of cheese compared to the Artisanal version I cannot believe that it would be anywhere near as good. This book appears to have Terence's personal touch, not just regurgitation of classic bistro recipes.